Carpet Python lurked in toilet and bit Brisbane woman on the bum

It was a quiet afternoon in Brisbane when Helen Richards quickly nipped to the toilet, but she felt something horrifying when she sat down.

A snake catcher has revealed the haunting moment a carpet python leapt up and bit a customer on the bum as she was sitting on the toilet.

It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon at Chapel Hill in Brisbane’s west when Helen Richards went into her bathroom to use the toilet. She didn’t turn the light on, as she wasn’t going to be in there long.

But according to a snake catcher — who detailed the shocking incident in a Facebook post — she then felt something bite her “mid-stream”.

“As you can imagine, she jumped up quite quickly,” the snake catcher wrote.

“It all happened so fast, and she initially thought it was a frog.”

A 1.6m carpet python was just chilling out inside a Brisbane toilet. Picture: Helen Richards

Terrifyingly, she discovered it wasn’t a frog, but a 1.6m non-venomous Carpet Python which had “gotten just as much of a fright as she did”.

“I jumped up with my pants down and turned around to see what looked like a longneck turtle receding back into the bowl,” Ms Richards said — describing the horrifying moment to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The snake catcher said the reptile’s preferred exit point was blocked after being spooked by Ms Richards sitting down and it “simply lashed out in fear”.

“It showed no defensive behaviour after this point,” they added. “Our snake catcher arrived promptly, with first aid in hand, so that the customer could clean herself up and get some antiseptic spray on the few small puncture marks left by the snake.”

Snake catcher Jasmine Zeleny rescues a 1.6m carpet python from the Chapel Hill toilet. Picture: Helen Richards

Full of praise for his customer’s reaction to the traumatising ordeal, the catcher added Ms Richards “remained calm and remembered not to flush the toilet”.

They said flushing could have caused the snake to retreat down into the pipes again.

“The snake was safely removed and relocated, and the customer handled the situation like an absolute champ, having a sense of humour about it the entire time,” they said.

“She said her toilet habits have forever changed! Lights will be on, and she will always give the bowl a quick glance before sitting down.”

The snake experts said having a carpet python lodged in your loo is “certainly not a regular occurrence” — adding it was the first time they had been called to such an incident.

However, they had two pieces of advice for anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in a similar situation: Don’t poke and prod it and don’t continue to flush the toilet.

“If you do these things it increases the chances of us not being able to access the snake if it retreats further into the pipe,” they said. “Put the lid down, secure it, and call a snake catcher.”